README.md

nixpkgs-update

The future is here; let's evenly distribute it!

Introduction

nixpkgs-update is the code
used by @r-ryantm to semi-automatically
update nixpkgs. It uses package repository information from
Repology.org to
generate a list of outdated packages. A package is considered
"outdated" if a newer version of the package is available at any other
repository tracked by
Repology. nixpkgs-update
tries to update each package in the dumbest way that could work. It
find-replaces the old version number with the new one, uses
nix-prefetch-url to try to get the new hash, then tries to build the
package. If it succeeds, it checks the outputs and makes a pull
request. It also uploads the built package to
Cachix, which people can use to
manually test the package without building it themselves.

nixpkgs-update features

Checks

A number of checks are performed to help nixpkgs maintainers gauge the
liklihood that an update was successful. All the binaries are run with
various flags to see if they have a zero exit code and output the new
version number. The outpath directory tree is searched for files
containing the new version number. A directory tree and disk usage
listing is provided.

Rebuild reports

The PRs made by nixpkgs-update say what packages
need to be rebuilt if the pull request is merged. This uses the same
mechanism OfBorg uses to put
rebuild labels on PRs. Not limited by labels, it can report the exact
number of rebuilds and list some of the attrpaths that would need to
be rebuilt.

PRs against staging

If a PR merge would cause more than 100 packages to be rebuilt, the PR
is made against staging.

Logs

Logs from r-ryantm's
runs are
available on GitHub. There are a lot of packages nixpkgs-update
currently has no hope of updating. Please dredge the logs to find out
why your pet package is not receiving updates.

Cachix

By uploading the build outputs to
Cachix, nixpkgs-update allows you to
test a package with one command.